Peer pressure and adolescent mobile social media addiction: Moderation analysis of self-esteem and self-concept
clarity
Xiaopan Xu12, Wanqu Han1and Qingqi Liu3,4*
1Institute for Public Policy and Social Management Innovation, College of Political Science and Public Administration, Henan Normal University, Xinxiang, China,2School of Sociology, Central China NormalUniversity, Wuhan, China,3College of Education for the Future, Beijing Normal University, Zhuhai,China,4School of Education, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou, China
Background:Social media addiction has increasingly been a critical social problem. We explored the association between peer pressure on mobile phone use and adolescent mobile social media addiction and tested whether self-esteem and self-concept clarity could buffer the effect of peer pressure.
Methods:830 adolescents (Mage= 14.480, SDage= 1.789) participated in our anonymous cross-sectional questionnaire study.
Results:The results showed that peer pressure significantly predicted adolescent mobile social media addiction. Self-esteem moderated the effect of peer pressure on mobile social media addiction in that peer pressure had a weaker effect for adolescents with higher self-esteem. Self-concept clarity moderated the effect of peer pressure on mobile social media addiction in that peer pressure had a weaker effect for adolescents with higher self-esteem. The two moderators also interact in that the moderation of self-esteem was stronger for adolescents with higher self-concept clarity and the moderation of self-concept clarity for adolescents with higher self-esteem.
Conclusion:The results highlight the critical role of self-esteem and self-concept clarity in buffering the impact of peer pressure on mobile social media addiction. The findings promote a better understanding of how to buffer the undesirable effect of peer pressure and reduce the risk of mobile social media addiction among adolescents.
（政治与公共管理学院李广宇）
